Saturday, January 28, 2006

A little gratuitous ego boosting

Okay, I admit it. I'm a little vain. I also realize that I am not always the most forthcoming about myself, my life and my experiences when it comes to this blog. So, in the interest of applying a little Fix-A-Flat to my ego, here is an exercise I've used every so often over the last ten years. There are probably other versions of it floating around out there. Someone once gave me the barest bones of it while telling me about an experience they had with a spiritual counselor. I ran with the idea of "meeting" different facets of myself.

"The Dinner"

Get comfortable and relax. Let all the stress and tension drain right out of your body. Especially get it out of those little nooks and crannies we all forget about: drop your jaw, unscrunch your forehead, work on that little tight spot right between your shoulderblades...

Now, ground and center, using whatever technique works for you. When you're ready, start visualizing a room. This room can be anything: a ski lodge with plenty of soft, comfortable chairs and couches. A formal dining room, complete with fine china, silver and a chandelier. A kitchen. You can even visualize a meal or snacks if you want. Just create the room with the intention of inviting in various parts of yourself that want to "meet up" or socialize.

When the room is ready, visualize a door opening and various "people" coming into the room. These are different facets of yourself. They could appear as anything: archetypal beings, people you know, characters from stories, fairy tales or myths. Greet them, talk to them and get to know them. In other words, you're the host of this party - mingle! Ask them questions. What do they represent? Do they have some information you need? Some of these facets you may be very comfortable with and not so comfortable with others. Sometimes, there are parts of us that we can't or don't want to face or accept and they may show up in strange ways. Are any of them angry? Sad? Do they need you to make amends?

When it's time, thank "everyone" for coming and let them leave the room. Get ready to come out of the visualization by consciously taking a few deep breaths and perhaps gently stretching a bit. Open your eyes.

I don't want to influence anyone's results so if you're curious about what some of my facets were, I'll post them in the comments.

1 comment:

I was really surprised when I "met" some of my facets. Let's see - I had a very stern police officer, a very compassionate and comfident medicine woman, a bratty princess (of all things!), and several others to show up.

The interesting thing, to me anyway, is there could be a lot of different facets. I've done this exercise and "heard" several more people outside the door who didn't come in.